Different aspects of social life require different types of explanation
and have different types of history. The patterns and forces of social history
underdetermine cognitive aspects of phenomena whose broader features may indeed be
sociologically constrained and therefore answerable to historical explanation. This
poses a challenge: how to produce revealing, helpful accounts which both offer explanations
for developments while still remaining true to the complexity of the society being
described. The challenge lies in dealing with the complexity of social causation.
A variety of functionalism is the usual recourse of anthropologists (this will
be further discussed in the conclusions below).

I shall focus on spider divination as one aspect of social life in several Cameroonian
societies. As a social phenomenon spider divination is widespread throughout
the southern half of the country. I do not pretend, however, that it is the
most important aspect of those societies. The particular task which I have
set myself is to be faithful both to the cognitive work undertaken in divination
and to its social role.

At the same time I wish to ask how we should explain both the similarities and
the differences between these systems of spider divination. In the broadest
sense I shall indicate two types of explanation, one cognitive and the other sociological.
It is my contention that each type of explanation identifies factors which underdetermine
but constrain those of the other explanatory type.

Divination in court, examples
from Mambila, Banen and elsewhere

The use in divination of spiders which live in holes in the ground is widespread
throughout southern Cameroon. There is a common term, ŋgam, which is used both for
the spiders and, generically, for divination. There seems little question that
the technique has spread from a single source over this area. Vansina (1990: 13)
takes ŋgam as an example of a recent innovation on the basis of its continuous
distribution over a well-defined area. This is further discussed in Blench and Zeitlyn,
1989/90. The relation of social structure to particular socia forms is thrown
into particular focus by such a phenomenon. The fact of dispersion from common
origin implies nothing about the social role of divination, nor does it imply much,
if anything, about the divinatory practice.

The political systems of the groups in question may be summarised as follows:

Mambila, who are found on both sides of the international boundary, have rudimentary
chiefs in Nigeria. Among Cameroonian Mambila the institution of the chief has
been strengthened by borrowing from the

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FIG. 1. Banen and Mambila territory in Cameroon

neighbouring Tikar. They lack, however, any form of unilineal descent system.
To the south of the Mambila lies the large city state of Foumban, which dominated
the area at the end of the nineteenth century. An important and highly organised
court dominated many smaller vassal chiefdoms. Farther south still are the
Bamiléké and their neighbours, the Banen, who, like the Bamoun of Foumban,
have polities based on chiefdoms and lineages. Mambila may use the results
of spider divination as the principal evidence against someone accused of witchcraft.

The Bamiléké and Banen use spider divination to diagnose the best
response to illness but its results are not used as evidence in court (Hurault 1962:
78).

I shall compare the use of spider divination among the Mambila, whom I know best,
and among another group to the south for which there is good documentation. The
comparison will be made both of technique and of social role. In particular
I am relying on the work of Idelette Dugast on the Banen. Dugast worked in
the Ndiki chiefdom of the Banen over a twenty-year span from the mid-1930s to the
late 1950s.1

Part of the motivation for the comparisons which follow may be seen in the political
role of the Zande benge oracle in its classic description by Evans-Pritchard
(1976 [1937]). All decisions made on the strength of benge oracles may
be referred up to a higher court. The ultimate appeal is to the king and

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thereby to the king's oracle (a benge oracle which is no different in kind
or technique from the others).

In Zandeland [the poison oracle's] verdicts derive an historic sanction from the
fact that its verdicts were traditionally backed by the full authority of the king.
... In legal disputes, therefore, the authority of the poison oracle was formerly
the authority of the king, and this in itself would tend to prevent any serious challenge
to its veracity' p.343).

Only princes (in charge of provinces) and the king are aware of the contradictions
inherent in the system. For example, death may be held to be caused by witchcraft
following divination performed by that person's kin. A different kin group
may believe that the same death is caused by vengeance magic aimed at a witch. Royals
are the only group to know both diagnoses. However, they do not discuss these
problems, so no consequences follow from such contradictions (p. 7). I would
suggest, and I hope that the examples considered below corroborate the suggestion,
that it is no coincidence that the benge oracle is of political importance
and that it possesses the cognitive features which it does. The cognitive features
I refer to are those of independence from operator manipulation (a topic which Evans-Pritchard
discusses at length) and the extent to which operator interpretation is reduced by
the oracle providing answers to yes/no questions.

In Cameroon a telling example of the political importance of spider divination
may be found in Foumban. Foumban is the capital of the Bamoun people, who dominated
the regional politics of western Cameroon in the nineteenth century. A city
state with imperial pretensions, its rulers exacted allegiance over a wide area.
In the late nineteenth century the famous ruler Njoya converted to Islam and
invented his own writing system. With this script he wrote his 'History
and Customs of the Bamoun'. By the time (c. 1910) that he began writing he
was secure in alliance with the Germans. This afforded him some protection
from competition for the throne so he could repeal some of the laws which entrenched
his position. The history includes lists of laws repealed and new legislation.
Among the old laws which were repealed
are the following (my translation from the French):

16. If one consulted a diviner on the subject of an important man who was ill,
if one affirmed that he would not die then were he to die they also killed the person
who had consulted the diviner.

The latter is not concerned with errors of divination. Bamoun spiders do
not lie. They are symbols of wisdom in myths, stories and on carvings: another
law which Njoya repealed was a restriction on the use of spiders as a decorative
motif on bedposts (p 128). The use of spider divination was banned as treasonable.
The health and safety of the chief could be discovered through spider divination
and therefore its use was prohibited in order to preserve State secrets. It
is not necessary to continue with the intricacies of Bamoun history to appreciate
the importance that

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TABLE 1: Banen and Mambila compared

Measure

Banen

Mambila

Chiefs

Yes

No

Lineages

Yes

No

Spiders in court

No

Yes

Overnight divination

Yes

No

Degree of constraint

Low

High

was accorded to spider divination. Among other groups its place may not
have had such a great political significance. One of the tasks of the sociologist
is to explain how this variation has come about and what other features accompany
it.

Table 1 summarises the comparisons which will be made in more detail in
the remainder of this article.

Generalised account of spider
divination

The common elements of spider divination are as follows:

The divination technique consists of posing a question to a ŋgam spider which lives
in a hole in the ground. An inhabited spider-hole is located and the area immediately
around it cleared of vegetation. Alternatively the spider can be dug out of
its hole and taken to a more conveniently sited abandoned hole in which it will be
kept. Over the hole is placed an old pot (about 40 cm diameter), the
upturned base of which is knocked out. This is covered with a shard or piece
of tin as a lid which can be removed to inspect the entrance to the burrow and its
immediate surroundings. When a question is to be posed various markers are
placed inside the pot near the hole, and these are associated by the diviner with
alternatives posed in the question, or with the individuals concerned. Most
systems involve a set of leaf-cards. These are made either from the leaves
of particular trees or may be cut from the skin of raffia palm ribs. They are
individuated with a set of ideograms; often each ideogram is repeated, once on one
card, twice on another. Such pairs of cards are seen as bad and good respectively.
For instance, the card with one symbol meaning palm-tree refers to a problem
associated with palms, that with the palm-tree doubled means that good is to be expected
from the palms.

Large numbers of such cards are used: Gebauer published four sets of cards used
by Yamba diviners. The numbers in these vary from 206 to 290 (1964: 46). Contemporary
Mambila use fewer cards, thirty eight being the largest number of ideograms being
used in one set, giving seventy six cards in all. After the question has been asked,
the objects and the set of leaf-cards are placed in the enclosure, and the pot is
covered. It is usual for some cards or other objects to be placed over the
entrance to the spider hole. The diviner now waits (often overnight) for the
spider to emerge. When the spider emerges it disturbs the objects and the cards.
The diviner interprets the pattern resulting from the spider's passage to answer
the question posed.

The meanings of the cards may be referred to in relation to some of the other
objects. For example, where stones are placed round the hole, as

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FIG. 2: Palm-tree cards: good - bad (approximately actual
size).

occurs in the Banen variant described by Dugast, each stone may be associated
with a different individual. Cards placed near each stone are interpreted with
regard to the individual associated with that stone. Were I the consultant
and the card meaning 'bad palm' was found on or near 'my' stone then I would be told
not to climb palm trees, that this would be dangerous, and so forth. Different
systems have different rules for interpreting combinations, and diviners have more
or less freedom to read a story from the resulting pattern.

Various identifications have been published for the spiders used in spider divination.2 It should be noted that among the Mambila, 'spider'
divination is usually performed by land crabs (Sudanonautes (convexonautes) aubryi)
although spiders are also used. In Mambila both spider and crab can be referred
to as ŋgamə. This appears to be peculiar to those groups such as the Mambila
and the Wute3 who live on along the escarpment of
the Adamawa Plateau.

Mambila

The Mambila lie on either side of the Nigeria/Cameroon border, the bulk of them
living on the Mambila Plateau in Nigeria. A smaller number (c. 12,000) are to be
found in Cameroon, especially at the foot of the Mambila Plateau escarpment, on the
Tikar Plain. My fieldwork was restricted to these groups, and in particular
to the village of Somié. Somié had a population of approximately
one thousand (based on the official 1986 tax census) at the time of my fieldwork.
Self-sufficient in food, the villagers have grown coffee as a cash crop since
the early 1960s.

Cameroonian Mambila on the Tikar Plain have adopted the Tikar institution of the
chieftaincy, yet their social structure otherwise closely resembles that described
for the Nigerian village of Warwar by Rehfisch (1972) based on fieldwork in 1953.
Nigerian Mambila did not have the same type of institutionalised chieftaincyas
is found in Cameroon. In Nigeria villages were organised on gerontocratic principles,
and lacked well developed political offices. The system of exchange marriage
described by Rehfisch (1960) has now vanished, and with it the two sorts of named
group which recruited through different combinations of descent, marriage type (exchange
or bridewealth) and residence. Marriage is viri-patrilocal, and is

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increasingly on the basis of courtship, although the provision of bridewealth
is still a major factor. However, bridewealth may be paid in instalments over a number
of years. It is not cited as a reason for the failure of young men to marry.
In Cameroon most people in the village are members of either the Catholic or
Protestant Church; Islam is of greater importance among Nigerian Mambila. However,
both men's and women's masquerades are still performed, and cases heard at the chief's
palace are regularly concluded with a ritual oath (suàgà). The
results of spider divination are held to be authoritative evidence, and when witchcraft
cases are passed from the chief's court to the national legal system the diviners
are called as witnesses.

Previous work

My earlier work on Mambila divination has examined the different types of divination
used by the Mambila in Cameroon. The rules of interpretation of spider divination
were explained and an example was examined (Zeitlyn, 1987; 1990a: chapter 3). Further
analysis of this case focused on the role of contradictions and the way in which
diviners reacted when the answer to one question contradicted an earlier answer (see
Zeitlyn, 1990b, c).

ŋgam dù: Earth
divination

ŋgam dù is the most important form of Mambila divination In
the account which follows the meanings of the leaf cards are scarcely referred to.
This is because the contemporary form of Mambila spider divination uses the
relative positions of the cards rather than their meanings. We shall concentrate
upon the actual process of divination and the principles of interpreting the positions
of the cards.

Most adult men apparently know at least the basic principles of interpretation
even if they have not formally been taught how to divine. More men have been
taught than regularly practise ŋgam. Amongs those who do,
some are widely regarded as experts and attract clients from far afield. There
is no formal requirement that a diviner should be a household
head but most active diviners are of that status. Since the commonest reason
for divination arises from illness there is more incentive for fathers to divine
than there is for single men. One senior man (Wajiri Bi) has clients who have
travelled from Nyamboya and Bankim (70 km away) for a consultation. In Somié
centre I know of five regular practitioners, and in immediately outlying hamlets
were three highly reputed men (Wajiri Bi among them) whom people from the centre
regularly consulted.

The political role of divination, and of ŋgam in particular, is
ambiguous. I was told that it is regarded as an essential skill, expected of
all senior men. However, this is not formalised, and I suspect that the only
explicit statement I received to this effect was little more than an inductive generalisation.
Knowledge of ŋgam is neither necessary nor sufficient for political
success. Yet it is a common means of achieving influence, and thus can contribute
to the exercise of power. That it is not sufficient is clear since there are successful
and acknowledged practitioners who do not take an active role in village politics.
That it is not necessary is illustrated by the Chief of Somié, well-respected
and influential chief, who yet neither knows

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how to divine, nor consults ŋgam dù, although neighbouring chiefs
are known as diviners.

However, when I repeated Rehfisch's 'opinion poll' asking who are the elders
of Somié (Zeitlyn 1990a: 26), all those named (apart from the chief) knew
ŋgam even if they were not regular practitioners.

New chiefs are selected through divination by the headman of Njerup, and Papa
the headman of Gumbe. On them alone rests any formal requirement to practise
divination, and only for this one purpose.

ŋgam dù plays a crucial role in the detection of witches since it provides an
authoritative verdict. For this, divination must be carried out by two respected
diviners who are not personally involved in the case. It is likely that the
chief will have increased his authority by stressing his non-involvement with
this activity, so that his judgements on the basis of divinatory results are accepted
as being more neutral. This is especially important as it concerns the role
of the Chief in referring witches accused in the village court to Bankim where they
are committed to the national system of justice in which witchcraft is an imprisonable
offence (article 251 of the Penal Code).4 At
a trial in Banyo the diviners who 'caught' the witch appear as witnesses for the
prosecution. People are sentenced with terms between six months and ten years.
Several people from Somié were remanded in custody for over a year before
being acquitted. Yet ŋgam dù, although powerful, is not merely a technique
by which social control is achieved. It is one of the ways by which men maintain
their authority over women, since women are not allowed to divine. These considerations
alone, however, cannot explain the observed practices. As has already been
said in the introduction, such 'functionalist reduction' is inadequate: it
can give no account of intellectual behaviour, particularly of the ratiocination
of the diviners.

Basic techniques of ŋgam dù

In Mambila ŋgam is generic for divination. ŋgam dù (lit. divination
ground) is practised with both crabs and spiders. No distinction is made in the treatment
they receive. As was described in the general account, the area around the
spider (or crab) hole is cleared and covered by an old pot. To begin divination
a stone is rubbed around the top of the pot which the diviner blows into saying 'yuo yuo'
(come out, come out). The procedure for asking a question involves placing
a stick and a stone inside the pot, one either side and slightly in front of the
hole, usually the stick to the left, the stone to the right. Opposite the hole,
about 10 cm. away, the divination leaf-cards5 are
neatly stacked, pointing at the hole.

Two cards are placed over the hole. These are usually those meaning 'End'
and 'Male' although 'Walk' is also used. Their meanings however, are not usually
referred to during interpretation. Some diviners6
put a stone on the stack in the early stages of divination so that only the two cards
over the hole can be moved. This stone is only removed when further
details are needed. These are then obtained by allowing the crab to disturb
the stack. However, the stack is often undisturbed even when unweighted. The
question is posed: a small stone in the right hand is tapped on the pot following
the rhythm of the speech which is often muttered. I was told

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FIG. 3: ŋgam dù set-up

that actual vocalization is unnecessary. Moreover, when I stumbled over
the phrases in Jù Bà I was told that I could speak English, and
divination would understand. No matter what is at issue, questions follow a
fixed schema allowing two possible responses, one associated with the stick and one
with the stone. The general form for a question is as follows:

My divination, you shape-changer, you witch, if XXXXX then take the stick, my
divination.

The choice is between one option (XXXXX) and either its direct negation (NOT XXXXX)
or an element from its contrast set (YYYYY) which may be more or less precisely specified.
Commonly the vague alternative mbɔ mbɔ, (divine further) is offered
which always has a negative connotation: further divination is about something evil.
The opening phrase can be extended to include other sorts of witches and idioms for
witchcraft, thus becoming a list of possible sources of danger. The crab is described
as being a witch since 'it must be one otherwise it would not know about witchcraft.'
When enquiring further about this I was told that 'it takes one to know one,'
and reminded that people who have inherited witchcraft have 'open eyes,' and can
detect witches without necessarily practising witchcraft themselves.

Once the question has been put, the pot is re-covered and the diviner(s) retire
for ten to fifteen minutes to allow the crab to emerge and disturb the cards, thus
giving its answer. Often another pot is inspected and further questions put
while the answer from the first pot is awaited, so a set of parallel questions may
be operated. This provides a consistency check on the veracity of the divination.
(Truth-telling is considered separately below.) A new line of questioning
is marked by the diviner breaking a twig and throwing away the fragments as he states
that he will adopt a fresh approach, and that the divination is to follow suit.

Principles of Interpretation.

When the diviners return, if the crab has emerged and disturbed the cards, the
resulting pattern is read. Often an abbreviated version of the original

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question is spoken over the pot immediately before removing the lid and inspecting
the results. This section outlines the general rules by which the pattern
is interpreted. Expertise in reading the patterns is acquired firstly by divining
with elders expert in divination, and especially with one's teacher. Although
the stereotypical cases can be recounted (see below) the proper interpretation of
an equivocal response can only be learnt through seeing a similar response and being
taught its interpretation. The success of a particular interpretation can only
be evaluated in the light of subsequent events. While learning to divine, use
is made of truth-testing questions whose answers are easily verified for example:
'Will I eat maize porridge today?' Controlling the question not only
tests the veracity of the crab but also exercises the skill of the diviner. Later
one begins to divine alone, but always refining the technique by induction from past
cases. Thus I suspect that more experienced diviners rarely reject a
response as 'saying nothing,' while this is more common among beginners. It should
be stressed that these rules were presented to me as such. In general conversation
about divination a circle would spontaneously be drawn on the ground to represent
the spider hole, and a stick, a stone and scraps of leaf positioned to illustrate
examples. I asked how the divination gave its answers, how it could respond
to the questions asked of it. The cases illustrated below were presented
to me through the use of the diagrams as paradigm cases. The simplest responses
do not involve the whole stack of cards but only the two cards which are placed over
the hole (usually 'End' and 'Male'). If a card is moved towards or onto the
stick then the stick has been chosen (sie); similarly, the stone may be chosen. The
position of each card is interpreted firstly on its own according to these rules,
and secondly with reference to the positions of the other cards. Thus the two
cards left over the hole may contradict one another.

The first complication of this simple system is the possibility of the cards 'looking,'
which is illustrated below. A card may be viewed as an arrowhead due to the
symmetry of its shape7 and with this in mind it
can be taken to indicate a direction. Mambila diviners express this by saying
it 'looks' in a certain direction. Hence, if, when on the stick, it 'points'
at the stone it is the stone which has been chosen and vice versa. However,
one diviner did not use this interpretation. He disregarded the 'pointed-ness'
of the cards, concentrating instead on whether the cards had been turned over; this
distinction is also covered below. Thus far we have considered the four following
possibilities: The idea of a card 'looking' can be used to elaborate on the basic
answer which is read from the alternatives attached to the stick and the stone. If
a card on the stone 'looks' outside the pot as in a) and b) above, this can be used
to give more information about the evil which threatens. For example, when
trouble in a compound is at issue, a card 'looking' outwards directs the diviners
to consider a cause outside the compound. This sort of detail is often ignored
when the answer selected is the alternative which the client prefers. In principle
these four basic possibilities may be doubled by further

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FIG. 4. ŋgam dùbasic responses

distinguishing whether the cards are upside down (maplim). Normally the
cards are viewed with the rib uppermost, and this is how they are laid over the hole.
In abstract discussion of interpretation I was told that an inverted card was
'bad', possibly warning of unforeseen problems, so a card on the stick as in
a) above, but inverted, is similar to one 'looking' at the stone... It is possible
to use this principle to aid difficult interpretations, although, in observed divination
Wajiri Bi ignored this feature. Bɘbɘ, who does not refer to 'looking,' equated
'maplim on stick' to 'stone' but said that all cards near the stone were
bad. Despite these variations between diviners there is far more consensus
than is reported among Bamiléké diviners (Pradelles 1986:311-313).
Some responses are portents of death: the pulling of cards down into the hole, the
balancing of cards against the pot wall so that they point (or 'look') down into
the ground, or the pushing of the cards outside underneath the pot. Bɘbɘ made
the distinction between the simple pulling of cards which remain flat into the hole,
signifying a 'bad' situation which must be corrected, and the cards being folded
over in so doing, which tells of a death to come.

Further rules of Interpretation

1) If the card(s) placed over the hole are inserted into the stack then the

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FIG 5. ŋgam dù Further responses

divination is taken to have selected the card above the place of entry. The
meaning of this card is referred to in the result, usually in the context of the
positions of other cards. This is the only instance in which the meaning of
the cards is invoked in Mambila divination.

2) A card balanced on its base against the pot wall augurs well, whereas balanced
on its point it portends death.

These basic rules are sufficient to interpret the simple cases. The skill
in divination lies in the ability to interpret equivocal results, for example when
one card is on the stick and another on the stone. Most often, however, such
a result will be rejected as saying nothing.

Divination and Truth

The veracity of any particular divination result may be questioned by the participants.
Other types of Mambila divination such as ŋgam (divination of the ŋgam tubu
vine) can only be checked inductively by asking easy questions and, unlike its more
serious counterpart, no remedial procedures are available if it is found to be lying.
It is possible that this omission relates to the degree of operator-dependence.
Manipulation by the operator is possible in ŋgam tubu in a direct manner unlike
ŋgam Hence the operator can be blamed whenever the divination is proved
wrong. The suspicion of manipulation prompted sarcastic comments at a demonstration
of another type of divination8. On the other
hand, a variety of tests and techniques is employed to ensure the truthfulness of
ŋgam which is not operator-dependent.

The most routine check is applied during every divination session by repeating
the same question in the same pot. On the second occasion the stick and stone
are transposed. This enables the diviners to reject answers resulting from
the leaves being pushed repeatedly in one direction. The divination must appear
to be paying heed to the question being asked.

Other techniques involve administering an ordeal to the spider. At intervals
of approximately a month sér ŋgam; (porridge [of] divination) is prepared by
the diviner who puts it into the holes while uttering a variety of encouraging phrases
such as:

'Take fiercely, take fiercely, tell the truth, tell the truth, and be strong;
tell lies and die.'

Two or three days later divination restarts with a set of questions to establish
the state of each

Page 229

particular pot. Truth-telling is tested by asking either 'Am I here?' or
'Will I eat maize porridge today?'9.

The spiders may also be asked whether any witchcraft is attempting to interfere
with them. This is the only instance where any break with orthodox Western
logic occurs. A 'Cretan liar' paradox results if the answer provided is 'yes'.
However, I did not succeed in pointing out the fallacy. If an answer indicates
that witches are interfering then the spider is not consulted that day.

A less common treatment is to administer the powdered inner bark of a tree10 which has been scraped onto an old-style Mambila hoe-blade11. The bark is sprinkled into the holes, using
both hands, to the accompaniment of an invocation similar to that described above.
It is unclear whether all practitioners of ŋgam use this technique,
but certainly all use sérŋgam.

Central to the learning of divination is acquaintance with the names of the leaves
which are cooked and eaten with a chicken before the remainder is administered to
the divination pots. Subsequent preparation of sérŋgam repeats the
essentials of this initiation. It is described as being an ordeal for the spider:
only truth-telling spiders can eat it and survive. As has been said a consistency
check is performed by using several divination pots simultaneously, or by simply
repeating a question several times. Only if several pots give the same answer
will it be believed. I never witnessed a case where this became an issue; most
conflicting results were read as adding detail to a single answer12.
Responses which directly contradict one another are either taken to be 'criticizing
the question' or are explained away as aberrations. With respect to any particular
pot a highly empirical attitude is taken. By using the methods mentioned above
and by inductive tests, practitioners satisfy themselves that a pot and the spider
or crab within it is truthful. If a pot persistently misinforms, giving wrong
answers to the tests and giving answers inconsistent with those received from other
pots, then that pot will simply be abandoned.

Banen spider divination

In her monograph on the Ndiki (Banen) Dugast (196013)
devotes 43 pages to divination and spider divination is the first of the six divination
types described. Ordeals are described separately under a different heading,
a point to which we shall return. The Ndiki are a group of small-scale farmers with
segmentary lineages among which is a Chiefly lineage. In an area in which there
was no land shortage a question may be raised about the origin of the chief and his
authority. In the north of Cameroon there is uncertainty about rainfall giving
rise to a niche for ritual specialists and the possibility of its monopoly by chiefs.
This does not exist for the Banen who are on the margins of the tropical forest,
where rainfall is reliable and plentiful. The situation is very close to that
pictured by Kopytoff in his characterization of 'the African Frontier' (1987) in
which competition is for followers (qv Goody 1971) and successful groups split into
factions some of which go into the frontier, the uninhabited bush, where they settle.
If they are successful immigrants are

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attracted and the founding group subsequently becomes the chiefly lineage. A
similar social structure is reproduced by the those who cede from the parent group14. Such a characterization seems to fit the Bamiléké
and Banen, and the zone on the edge of the forest. To summarize: the Chief
and his lineage have a limited set of ritual powers but are not, at base, different
in kind from any other lineage. They have come to dominate as a result of a
historical process. They had (in precolonial times) a monopoly over the use
of capital punishment or the selling of kin into slavery (often a preferred solution
to the problems posed by habitual offenders). In such a group the management
of witchcraft accusations is important. Witchcraft accusation is a means
by which political rivalries may be expressed, and may lead to the fission not only
of lineages but also of the group. Since the chief must retain followers in
order to maintain a viable economy such accusations must be managed and resolved.
Spider divination does not play a role in this process. Its use
is widespread, however, in response to illness.

The presence of lineages among the Banen should also be remarked upon unlike the
Mambila case in which lineages are absent. Elders have authority by virtue
of their seniority in the lineage. Lineage heads arbitrate internal disputes. The
lineage system 'naturalizes' their authority. Compared to the Mambila case there
is less need for an elder to refer to an external authority (divination).

When we come to examine the Banen variety of spider divination we must remember
that sociologically it is used in response to personal problems but it is not important
when personal problems are placed in a wider arena. It is not an element of
political debate. Hence its operations are not subject to the constraints of
public debate or scrutiny as may occur among the Mambila. The principal Banen
responses to witchcraft accusations were to swear oaths while holding tortoises (it
was held to be fatal to lie on this oath) or to undergo a variety of ordeals. The
results of spider divination may have led to the initial accusation but they do not
figure as evidence in court. The results of divination are not subject to public
scrutiny in court.

The interpretation of Banen spider divination occurs as a two stage process which
I will explain next.

Who are diviners, who are clients?

Diviners are held to have organs (transmitted matri-laterally) located near the
stomach which enable them to interpret dreams, to divine effectively and to administer
the treatments which may follow. These organs bibuŋə (sing.
ibuŋə) are not necessarily
present at birth. It is possible to acquire them and hence the ability to divine
by eating the bibuŋə of chickens together with certain special medicines.

However, there is great ambiguity in making a claim to possess bibuŋə since the possession
of these organs is also a necessary requirement for the mulemp (sing. balemp) - those who transform
at night and eat the internal organs. <Mulemp may be of either sex;
diviners are male. Diviners have 'good' bibuŋə, they are not mulemp, they never transform
or eat people. Dugast illustrates some of the types of questions asked in divination,
but not who asks them. I suspect that only men may be clients, but this may
be an over-generalization from the Mambila model. Dugast tells us that spider

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FIG. 6 The four batons, cut to represent male and female
pairs, good and bad

divination is consulted before a mother visits her daughter, before a man climbs
his palms to harvest the nuts, or leaves on a journey. It is also consulted about
the breakdown of a marriage or about the possible location of a house. A similar
range of questions is asked in Mambila divination.

The timing of questions

A single question is asked in the evening. The pot is inspected the next
morning to discover the answer. If the response is unclear then it may be repeated
the next day. Clearly such a method demands that the questions are not restrictive,
since to ask many small precise questions would simply take too long. In cases
of illness it would be inappropriate to spend several weeks asking a sequence of
questions to rule out successive possibilities. Rather, one large, general
question is asked. Dugast gives the following example:

'I have brought all the (divination) leaves cut by me myself because someone has
come so that I can ask you if he is all right. Tell him this. If he will
out live this year, tell him. If he will have troubles, or if a bad fate is
attached to him, show it. Show me a sign by which I will know that his enemies will
achieve nothing. Place them before me in their place so that I can know fully
that they don't want ill of him. If they want to kill him, show it to me. If
he will win over them this month then place him over them.' (p 50, my translation.)

This type of questioning puts the onus on the diviner. When the question
is vague more interpretation is necessary to arrive at a definite answer. So,
overnight questioning using only one spider at a time, constrains the type of question
and increases the work which the diviner must do.

Set-up

Four batons, cut from the skin of a palm rib are placed over the spider hole,
skin side up. Eight stones are placed about 15 cm from the hole, forming an
octagon around it. Different individuals are associated with particular stones.
The stack of cards is propped upright, wedged between two small sticks stuck
in the ground. The end of the stack is over the hole so that it will be disturbed
when the spider emerges.

Batons

The four batons are used to indicate the general form of the answer. The
batons are cut with patterns and are taken to represent two male-female pairs, a
good pair and a bad pair15. The good pair have notches
cut

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FIG 7 A good sign. There
is nothing to fear from the enemy.

in one edge, the bad pair have notches cut on both edges. Short batons are female,
long male. When the question is posed they are placed over the spider's hole
in sequence (from left to right): good female, good male, bad male, bad female. The
examples of interpretation as given by Dugast are shown in Figs. 7-8. If the
order of the batons is changed, and the bad-female is covered by the bad-male (fig.
9), then 'the good have taken the place of the bad:' opponents will be overcome and
if the man goes hunting he will kill an animal. Further examples are given of the
significance of turning over the batons to reveal the 'inside' surface (shaded) in
Figs 10-12. There are clearly far more possible results than have been illustrated
here. What we are not told is whether there are other standard interpretations
of the form 'turned-over, and pushed away from the hole = a corpse at the crossroads.'

Cards

There are 84 different cards, many (21 plants, 12 animals: 33 in all) relate to
items which may be used in treatments to avert, cure or circumvent the problem as
revealed by the interpretation of the batons. The cards covering the stones
are taken to relate to the person associated with that stone. Unfortunately
Dugast does not give much information about the possible complexities of interpretation.
For example, we are not told of the significance of the spider turning over
a card.

Interpretation

The relative positions of the four batons provide the key to the main part of
the answer. The cards are then referred to in order to produce more

FIG. 8 'A bad sign: an enemy will kill the consultant

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FIG. 9 'The good has taken the place of the bad'

detail. In particular they are used to specify the ingredients of any medicine
(Dugast talks of 'amulets') which may be prepared. In fact the preparation
of some medicine (or other ritual treatment, such as circling the patient's head
nine times with a particular animal which has been identified by divination) is the
usual outcome of a consultation. In principle it seems possible for the leaves
to contradict the batons, but Dugast does not consider this possibility. If
priority is given to the batons any direct contradiction may be avoided. Conflicting
diagnoses may be seen simply as a warning of different and various threats. It
is not a contradiction for a threat to come from two people simultaneously, nor for
two people to be threatened. If the batons indicate a different person from
the cards then this could be taken as revealing both a major and a minor threat.
Dugast states that the diviner is often unable to interpret the pattern. In
this case the diviner will repeat the question the next night.

Methods and styles of explanation

In the background to this work lie a set of questions about anthropology and history
and how different aspects of social life should be explained. A brief account
of these questions now follows:

People bear children and socialise them. They acquire language and much
more. They learn not just how to make a living but how to act in society. They
find partners and have their own children in turn. Thus, at its crudest, do societies
reproduce. We could elaborate this account in many directions to explain different
types of continuity between generations.

FIG. 10 Neither the husband nor the wife should leave
their hut during the day because they would be attacked by opponents who would overcome
them.

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FIG. 11 The good-male is said to be 'at the crossroads'.
The consultant must avoid crossroads that day since the diviner 'has seen a corpse'.

But change is harder to explain than continuity, and the direction of change even
more so. Recently some authors have shown how different aspects of society
change at different rates. For example, elements of ritual performances may
be relatively invariant while its overall significance and political role may undergo
radical change (Bloch 1986). To say that an element is 'relatively invariant'
means that it must be recognisably similar on the occasions of different performances.

The requirement of such invariance puts constraints upon those elements. We
may term 'cognitive' such constraints as the need to be learnable in the first place
and subsequently to be remembered. Pascal Boyer has discussed the implications
of this (1990). To go much further, one might ask which cognitive constraints
are imposed (on us as a species) by our ability to learn and use language. Macnamara
(1982) discusses some of these issues from the perspective of developmental psychology.
At the most general level different sorts of explanations (involving different factors)
must be given for different aspects of a society. Each factor is under-determined
by the forces which drive the others. Yet forces and

FIG. 12 If an opponent is 'at the crossroads' then
'the opponent will die', and the consultant has nothing to fear from crossroads.

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factors are constrained and constraining upon one another. The result is
a complex web of interaction and feedback which accommodates the vicissitudes of
real life and social change.

Functionalism reprieved

Reports of the death of functionalism have been somewhat exaggerated. True,
functionalism provides little assistance in explaining change. Also, it gives
teleological explanations which justify the existence of aspects of society in terms
of their unintended consequences. Agency is among the casualties of such an
approach (Fardon 1988). Notwithstanding these limitations, functionalism has
a contribution to make. For, at the crudest level things do get done. Lack
of fit between social institution and what it does may then be seen as a motor of
history. But if funerary rites do not dispose of the dead, or if the processes
of dispute resolution never decide who should be farming which plot of land then
they are not what we think they are. I take it that in every society the dead
must be disposed of and that disputes must be resolved, by force perhaps16.

Here lies the remaining utility of functionalism. The role played by an
institution acts as a constraint upon its past and present form. Any dispute
resolution procedure must be able to resolve disputes. The analysis of spider
divination shows that such naive and crude a starting point may still produce revealing
results. I should stress, however, that I am by no means suggesting that functionalism
is the be-all and the end-all. Rather, it behoves us to start by asking: how
much can be explained by this type of minimal functionalism. The large part
of social life which will not be amenable to such an approach must be explained differently.
To give a concrete example Atkinson and Drew (1979) analyse the use of language
in court- rooms. Linguistic usage in court-rooms differs greatly from that
of ordinary conversation. Atkinson and Drew seek to demonstrate how much of
the formality of court-room interaction can be explained by the linguistic setting
(a barrister asks questions of a witness so as to be understood by a jury which cannot
overtly signal that it is following the exchange). The silence of the jury
necessitates departures from ordinary conversational practice. This alone can
explain much of the strangeness and formality of court-rooms which we may otherwise
attribute to more general sociological factors. The linguistic approach can
explain part of court- room organisation. Other more disparate sociological
factors must explain the rest. The problems with functionalism are many and need
not be further rehearsed here. Yet as has just been suggested its use remains
important. If we succeed in making a case for some constraints on the possible
range of human society then we may be guided to look for more detail in the actual
history of an institution, looking within the realm of the possible. Such guidance
may be of great help when attempting to reconstruct the past, particularly when one
is doing this with incomplete and very partial records such as are found in colonial
or mission
archives.

A functional account

Elster (1979:28 & 1982) has formalized and discussed criteria for a functional

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account which is non-teleological and ideologically neutral. He identifies
five criteria summarized by Thompson et al. (1990:201) as follows:

'Y (the function of X) is an effect of X (behavioural pattern).

Y is beneficial for Z (the group)

Y is unintended by the actors producing X.

Y (or at least the causal relation between X and Y) is unrecognised
by the actors in Z.

Y maintains X by a causal feedback loop passing through Z.'

This formalization may be applied to the accounts I have given above,as follows:

Mambila

'Y (the political role of divination - its use in court) is an effect
of X (the 'objectivity' of the divinatory style).

Y is beneficial for Z (the senior men)

Y is unintended by the actors producing X.

Y (or at least the causal relation between X and Y) is unrecognised
by the actors in Z.

Y maintains X.'

One of the justifications for such an exercise is that it reveals the limits of
our understanding. Step five is uncertain. Is it correct to suggest that
the use of spider divination in court maintains the 'objective' style of the Mambila
divinatory technique? I am sceptical of the suggestion, and uncertain about
the sort of data needed to answer the question. Is it legitimate to suggest
that the since the senior men use the results of divination in court this affects
the practice of the diviners? Since the diviners are the same senior men who
discuss and decide court cases it is not an implausible suggestion. However,
above I have argued for a weaker proposition, namely, that the style of divination
appears objective and hence does not invite suggestions of manipulation in court.
We now see that this negative cast to the argument is not sufficient to establish
the fifth step to a functionalist account which would satisfy Elster's
criteria.

For the Banen the fifth step of the functionalist argument appears to work although
perhaps to less effect. The results of divination are not produced at court
or at moots. They are not subject to the scrutiny which argument may entail. Individual
diviners therefore have more freedom to develop their own idiosyncratic styles of
interpretation, and to produce holistic accounts based on an interpretation of the
overall pattern. The use of spider divination in court would be non-functional. Compared
to the use of tortoises or ordeal spider divination is open to the charge of manipulation.

Banen

'Y (the non-political role of divination) is an effect of X (the 'subjectivity'
of the divinatory style).

Y is beneficial for Z (the senior men)

Y is unintended by the actors producing X

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4. Y (or at least the causal relation between X and Y) is unrecognised by the
actors in Z.

5. Y maintains X.'X.

Conclusions

Possible explanations for the features which I have been examining must
skirt the impasse of functionalism. There is a fit between what is done and
the form of what is done. The naive view would be that it could not be
otherwise. Although such naive functionalism is incapable of allowing for change,
nonetheless, what is suggested by the data just presented is that a functionalist
stance may be used in order to understand what different types of explanation are
needed for different aspects of society. Many questions remain outstanding when we
examine the ethnographic map and seek to explain why things are as they are. The
example just considered invites the question why spider divination does not stand
behind the power and authority of chiefs among the Banen in the way that ŋgam does for the
Mambila chiefs and benge oracles did for the Zande royalty?

The cognitive features of different varieties of divination provide partial explanation
to this. Where divination is done overnight, and only one question is asked
at a time, the questions must perforce be general. General questions produce
vague answers, so the diviner must do more interpretative work in order to produce
a definite answer. Such divination systems are open to charges of manipulation
and bias on the part of the diviner. Therefore, they are less likely to be
used to develop the power and authority of chiefs, and will hence have a lesser role
to play in public disputes and other arenas within which politics is played out.

Notes

1An expanded version of this argument will be
found in Zeitlyn, in prep. This will also include detailed discussion of the
work of Pradelles de la Tour Dejean who worked in the Bamiléké chiefdom
of Bangoua in the 1970s.

2Mambila use Hysterocrates robustus Pocock,
1899. Gebauer identified (1964:42) the spider used in Yamba divination
as Heteroscroda crassipes, and Leiderer found Phoneyusa bidenta Pocock,
1899 in use among the Bekpak (1982:116). Nicod (1948, facing p65) describing
neighbours of the Banen, illustrates a spider which is Hysterocrates sp. and
Laburthe-Tolra (1981:469) gives Hysterocrates sp. for the ŋgam spider among the
Beti.

3According to Siran, p.c.

4Rowlands and Warnier (1988) discuss the relation
of sorcery, along with its embodiment in law, to the Nation State.

5Gebauer 1964:35 calls them "leaf-cards",
or "cards": a usage I adopt here.

6Nggeyea Abraham, and those that he has taught.

7See diagrams.

8This was ŋgam ŋgɔfɔrɔ
lit. divination of snail, a divination type in which a snail shell is threaded on
a length of string held by the diviner. The ease with which the snail shell
moves on the string is taken to give answers to the questions posed.

11Formerly used for bridewealth, these are now rare and are only used
for rituals. I could not ascertain whether such hoes were once in everyday use.

12This is discussed in greater
detail in Zeitlyn 1990b.

13Readers are referred to chapter
V 'La Vie psychique', p 27-150. A further divination type is described in appendix
2, pp 603-15.

14Turner 1957 is the classic
ethnographic description of such a process.

15No dimensions are given in the text. The
Musée de l'Homme have a set collected by Dugast in May 1935 (38.114.33 1-4).
These are c. 1 cm wide, the 'male' batons are c. 15 cm long, the female ones
c. 12.5 cm in length.

16This is not to deny that there may be misleading
procedures which mask oppression. Rather the opposite. It is the observation
that such procedures do not in fact resolve disputes that reveals them as misleading
ideological constructs.

Zeitlyn, D. 1990c Divination as Dialogue: the negotiation of meaning with random
responses Paper presented at Colloquium on the Implications of a Social Origin
of Human Intelligence, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. E. N. Goody (Ed.)

Zeitlyn, D. in prep. The Techniques of Divination.

Acknowledgements

The initial research on which this study is based was funded by the E.S.R.C. (grant
no. A00428424416) and by a scholarship from Trinity College, Cambridge. My
research in Cameroon could not have been conducted without the research permits granted
by His Excellency the Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research (R.P.
13/85 and 62/86), and the help provided by his staff. Further research has
been carried out during the tenure of a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College,
Oxford. Both Wolfson College and the Faculty of Geography and Anthropology,
University of Oxford have been generous with assistance towards the costs of fieldwork.
The writing was completed during the tenure of a Junior Research Fellowship
at Wadham College, Oxford.

Richard Fardon provided detailed criticism as a reader on behalf of the Editors
of Africa. This has improved the argument; the faults that remain are mine not his.

Abstract

Both Banen and Mambila in Cameroon use spiders in divination. The intellectual
practice of the divinatory technique is related to the different sociological contexts
of divination. Relative freedom of interpretation and the posing of questions
overnight among the Banen correlates with its political unimportance. Conversely
among the Mambila the interpretation of the diviner is rule bound, and many simple
questions may be asked in quick succession. The results provide important evidence
in the chief's court. Social context and intellectual content are each constrained
but under-determined by the other.